Neighbors
by SASandJRtheOver-Editors
Summary: Derek frowned as he watched the moving van pull into the house. The house a bit back from his had been unoccupied for years, and now someone was moving in. This could expose his pack, expose him, or kill them. He had to figure something out. This was very bad. BY SAS
1. Chapter 1

Derek frowned as he watched the moving van pull into the house. The house a bit back from his had been unoccupied for years, and now someone was moving in. This could expose his pack, expose him, or kill them. He had to figure something out. This was very bad. Scowling, he re-entered his house. His pack had insisted on fixing it so they could have some privacy. With these new neighbors, it was a good thing. Not that he'd ever admit it to them. He scowled at the direction of his thoughts, and restrained himself from wolfing out. He looked out the window to see a large number of subdued teens and children enter. Two of the teens seemed to be in charge, and they were directing the children into rooms. He examined the house. It was large, like his, and probably held close to ten bedrooms. Large boxes were carried in by the girls, and he noticed they were having trouble. There was only one boy in the group, maybe fourteen, and Derek cursed.

_Why am I going to help them?_ He questioned himself as he headed over. "Hello?" Derek approached cautiously.

The tallest girl set down her box and wiped her hands on her jeans before offering one to him with a forced smile. "Hi. I'm Samantha. You must be Derek Hale. The caretaker warned me about you." Her eyes were grief filled, and Derek couldn't stop his wolf from attaching itself to her. _Damn. I thought mating was a myth._

"Yeah, I am. Anyways, I noticed you guys moving in, and wondered if you wanted some help? I've got some friends too..." He found himself offering. And that was how Derek Hale met his match.

"Sure! This rabble is going to get bored in a few." She accepted. Derek picked up the box she'd been lifting. _Jenna's Room_ it read. "All the doors are labeled, and so are the boxes. Thanks for your help! Madi went to get food, so if you want to stay for dinner, you're welcome. Your friends too, if they come." She offered.

Derek smirked at her. "Are you sure you're prepared to cook that much food?"

"Pretty sure I got it covered." She said confidently. Derek texted Stiles to text the others or call them, and then proceeded to carry box after box into rooms. Scott was the first to show up. Jackson, Cora, Ethan, Aiden, Isaac, Erica, Boyd, and Peter arrived fairly soon after. Stiles was the last to show, Lydia and Allison tagging along. With them, the job moved much more quickly. Soon, a car drove up and parked. A short brunette hopped out, and waved.

"Food's here!" She called. "Come get the groceries!" In minutes, a crew of kids came running in. The older one's took heavy things, like boxes of drinks, while the younger ones carried bags of meat, vegetables, spices, and every other thing Derek could think of. Samantha immediately pulled pots and pans out of boxes, and grabbed the fish, potatoes, ranch, eggs, milk, salad, and a few other items. In no time, she had sliced up the fish into pieces, battered it, and was currently frying. Potatoes were boiling in a pot, and she drained them efficiently.

"Would you mash?" She asked Derek, who had been sitting at the kitchen counter like a ninny.

"Sure." He found himself saying. _What is wrong with me?_ He did as he was asked anyways, taking his frustration out on the potatoes. When they were so smooth they were like soup, she added a few things, and had him mash again. When they were done, she had four heaping platters of fish, and the pot Derek had mashed was scooped into two large bowls. Salad was also in two large bowls, as were three baskets of rolls Derek hadn't seen her heat up. The table sat most of them, and Derek joined Samantha at the breakfast bar with Stiles and the short brunette, whose name, he learned, was Madi.

"So what's the story with all of you?" He asked in curiosity. He regretted the question the moment it was out, as Samantha's eyes darkened.

"We're really four families." She said quietly. "Madi, Jenna, the one over there next to Peter, and I lost our parents in an explosion. Someone had a grudge against Madi's parents -they were cops- and Jenna's and my parents had been over at the time the bomb exploded. My aunt was killed in the same explosion. It turns out she knew Mrs. Shaw, Madi's mother, and decided a catch-up dinner party sounded fun. My grandmother's been dead for a year. She was my last grandparent.

My Aunt Vicki and Uncle Fred died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. I can't stay at any of my other relatives houses because I'm very allergic. I love animals, especially large dogs, but in an enclosed quarters with any fur for too long I can't breathe. Danielle, my sister, is even worse. My parents left us everything, my grandmother some, my aunts and uncle a bit more, so I applied for emancipation, and got custody of my sister. I was sixteen. I took my dad's tools, and established a company for them, which is run by a few of the guys he trained."

Derek couldn't help but ask. "What did he do?"

"He was a special effects coordinator for the movie industry. I put some of his guys in permanent positions, and I get a good income for it. I sold all their properties but two, a house in Arizona and the house my father built, and stayed with Madi and Jenna in a rental. We split the cost three ways. Madi had two siblings, and everything was left to the three of them. She applied for emancipation and custody like I did, because none of her relatives could take all three of them. Jenna was seventeen, and did the same, because four siblings plus her meant they would be split up. It simply wasn't feasible." She had accounted for all but two of the people there.

"And the last two?"

"Shelby and Rachel. About three months after my parents, their parents also died in a car crash. None of their relatives wanted them but their grandparents, and they were told they were too old to properly care for them. Shelby was a friend of my sisters, so I applied for custody, and then adoption. This piece of land had been owned by my grandmother, a woman who had hidden that she had any money, and she left it to me, not anyone else, but me.

Jenna, Madi and I called a meeting, and we decided to do two things. The first was to change out last names to Elliot, meaning God is gracious, and do this whole legal process to adopt each other as siblings. I published a couple books under an alias, and they took off. Madi does well as my artist and research assistant, and Jenna is taking online college classes. The others will be enrolled in school here. The twelve of us make up a good, if slightly dysfunctional, family. My cousin lives a half hour from here, and he'll stop by on occasion. Other relatives of all of ours plan on dropping in on us, and we're happy, if missing our parents." She finished.

"I'm sorry." Derek said contritely. "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"It's alright." She sighed. "It was bound to come up sooner or later." She cleared her dinner plate, putting it in the dishwasher, and started cleaning the kitchen of their meal. Then she turned to Derek. "Do you know if anyone here is afraid of dogs?"

Derek inwardly laughed as he replied, "No, actually they all like dogs. Why?"

She ignored his question and ran from the room. A few seconds later, two Rottweilers barreled into the room. They obviously weren't affected by Derek's werewolf status. They growled at him threateningly, before Sam came in a second later and put a hand around each muzzle.

"Derek, these are my babies, Shilah and Andromeda."

Derek forced a smile. "May I?' He asked, reaching a hand to the smaller one. She nodded, and Derek scratched the dog's ear. She allowed him to, before shaking her head and running towards the dinner table. A blonde girl grabbed the dog's collar, and scratched her muzzle, before giving her a small piece of bread. Samantha followed Derek's line of sight.

"That's my sister, Danielle." She said softly. The larger Rottweiler was standing protectively at Samantha's hip. The pack was laughing with the Elliots, and after a few sharp hissing noises from Samantha, Shilah laid down by the wall. About an hour later, the pack left to go home, and Derek found himself reluctant to leave. He finally did so, and went to sleep with thoughts of a sharp tongued brunette with many mysteries.


	2. Chapter 2

CH. 2 ***************************************************************

Samantha picked Rachel up from where she had been falling asleep, and carried her up to the second bedroom, where she was sharing with Jordan. The two would help each other, and got along well despite the slight age difference. She and Jenna were sharing the master bedroom, and Danielle and Shelby slept across from Jordan and Rachel's room. Belle, Lily, and Emily were next to them, and Quinn had his own room opposite that. Madi and Riley shared the final occupied bedroom. They had six spare bedrooms, and an office, library, huge kitchen, laundry room, and quite a few bathrooms. It was the perfect house for them.

She went into the closet and opened the walk-in safe concealed in the back. Each family had a shelf, and jewelry boxes indicating whose jewelry was whose. Then there was a rack of guns. From these, Samantha selected a .22, and placed it in her bedside. She locked up and ushered the kids to an early bedtime. The dogs were given free reign, and included Sam's two Rottweilers, Madi's mutt Sarah, Shelby's golden retriever Leo, and Jenna's tiny house dog Moxie. Then they slept. Madi was the first one awake, and she woke the younger kids, making sure they were fed, clothed, and off to school, before waking Jenna and Sam.

"Why didn't you wake me?" Sam asked. "I would have helped you get them out the door. Besides, you and Riley didn't have to drive them _all_ to school. That's a lot of work, getting to three different schools."

"Sami, it's fine." Madi insisted. "Besides, you work the hardest out of all of us, and the last full moon was hard on you. I can't believe you, Belle, Riley and Quinn have that recessive gene. I wonder why our grandmothers never told anyone."

"Who knows. I hear Natalie, my cousin, got it too, but none of her brothers did. I'm watching Danielle, Jordan, Lily and Emily pretty carefully. I don't know what to look for."

"You'll get it. Everything will be fine. Besides, worst case sickness, you can heal us. Or that's what the majority of legends say about it."

"Yeah. I wonder why my eyes aren't yellow like the others's though."

"Who knows. Anyways, ready to wake Jenna?"

Sami grinned wickedly. "Heck yeah."

She and Madi gently moved the deep sleeper to the shower and turned on the cold water. A shriek pierced the house. Sam winced as it hurt her newly enhanced hearing. A bang on the door was followed by Derek Hale crashing into the bedroom. He blushed when he realized he'd broken into the house and no one was hurt.

"Sorry. Your scream alarmed me. I was worried someone was hurt." He explained bashfully. _Not bashfully. I do not do bashful. I am apologetic._ Derek corrected himself.

"It's alright. Good to know we have a protective neighbor. I should warn you not to do that at night though. The dogs will take you down."

"Of course. I'll let you be murdered by burglars then." Derek said sarcastically. Sam laughed.

"I like your humor." She said with a grin. "Madi and I have some work to do though, so if you don't mind..."

She trailed off and Derek got the hint. "Of course. The boys should be over soon anyways. Some of them live with me, but they stayed over at Stiles's house the last few nights. I'd better get to them and keep them out of trouble and training for lacrosse." He left awkwardly.

Jenna climbed out of the shower and peeled off her clothes, before toweling off. She hung her wet things to dry and disappeared into the closet, before coming out in a cute summer dress. "Alright, I'm off to do some paperwork for my next college semester, and then I'll toss some food in the oven for us. Afterwards, Sami, would you try to record that song with me? I think it could be a hit."

"Sure!" Sam replied with a smile. "Madi and I just have a bit of research to double check our facts and make sure we didn't contradict known fact before I send it off to the publisher. _Blue Moon_ should be another best seller."


End file.
